FCC approves spectrum changes for Sprint and hospitals

The Commission issued new rules, trying to make spectrum use more efficient.

Late this week, the FCC approved some changes to the current allotment of the wireless spectrum, paving the way for Sprint to expand its current 3G network and launch an LTE service. Possibly more importantly, the government agency also gave hospitals a slice of spectrum that will allow them to monitor patients without complex wiring.

A New Lease on 800MHz

For Sprint, the FCC changed the rules that govern how the 800MHz band of the spectrum is used. Sprint holds rights to broadcast in those wavelengths, but hasn't been able to efficiently build out more advanced networks due to rules that require certain spacing in between each channel Sprint uses in the 800MHz range.

Sprint obtained the rights to these wavelengths when it purchased Nextel in 2004, and the company originally used the spectrum to continue Nextel's iDEN network, which allowed for "push-to-talk", walkie-talkie like service. But that same year, the FCC started restricting how the telco could use each individual channel on its band, meaning Sprint could keep the iDEN system in place, but was severely restricted in adapting the band for new network technologies. The FCC meant for these restrictions to prevent interference with licensees like firefighters and police stations that used the 700MHz spectrum for public safety purposes. The regulator even tried to push Sprint out of the spectrum entirely, but eventually granted the company a temporary stay on that decision.

By 2010 Sprint began the process of shutting down iDEN and requested that the FCC rework its rules for the spectrum, a request the commission only just granted this week. Sprint plans to build out its CDMA and LTE based networks on the 800MHz waves.

The changes mean that the commission will provide "licensees with the flexibility to add transmitters or modify operations within their licensed market and licensed spectrum as market conditions dictate," and would have, "full discretion over channelization of available spectrum within the block."

In exchange, Sprint will have to notify public safety licensees of their reorganizing, so that the licensees can monitor their channels for interference. But, the FCC noted, "we do not anticipate that permitting EA-based 800 MHz SMR licensees to operate with wider channel bandwidths than currently permitted under Section 90.209 will result in an increase in harmful interference to public safety licensees."

Hi-tech hospital

The FCC also approved a second set of spectrum-use rules, regulating the 2360-2400 MHz band for use in hospitals as a "Medical Body Area Network," or MBAN. The MBAN will allow doctors to hook their patients up to the physiological sensors like EEGs, heart monitors or neo-natal sensors and have those lightweight and often disposable sensors transmit information back to the monitoring equipment without wires. Reducing the number of wires attached to patients will also lowers the risk of accidents and infections, and make patients more comfortable overall.

While MBAN isn't the first wireless network for medical information (MedRadio and the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service have also been used to transmit patient data wirelessly) having this spectrum set aside for hospitals will further the advance of wireless technologies in medecine. The band is only approved for short-distance transmissions at the moment, but long-distance in-home monitoring could be on the horizon as well. Last week the FCC attended a press conference with companies like Philips and GE Healthcare, whose leadership said they hoped to reduce hospital costs by making in-home monitoring available, so that more stable patients can get out of the hospital sooner and continue recovery at home (and surely the Philipses and GEs of the world hope to make a pretty penny off marketing devices using the new technology as well).

The rules governing the MBAN spectrum have much in common with the new rules governing Sprint's spectrum—MBAN actually overlaps with the spectrum allotted to commercial test pilots, but the Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry licensees and MBAN proponents have agreed to "register and coordinate" the use of their networks to avoid interference. The FCC noted that some amateur radio enthusiasts were concerned that MBAN frequencies could interfere with their existing licenses as well, but the public interest benefits seems to have largely outweighed those concerns.